About Our Legal Clinic
Community Legal Services of Ottawa was established in 2017 by amalgamation of three long-standing legal clinics:
- Downtown: Community Legal Services Ottawa Centre (422-1 Nicholas Street)
- South: South Ottawa Community Legal Services (406-1355 Bank Street)
- West: West End Legal Services (1299 Richmond Road)
As of April 1, 2017, three of Ottawa’s community legal clinics have become Community Legal Services of Ottawa (CLSO). We continue to provide the same access to justice services to the Ottawa community. We maintain three office locations to ensure that our clients can access services in their own communities.
We are a non-profit community legal clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario.
We give people living on a low income in Ottawa free legal services for certain problems: How We Can Help.
We can:
- give you legal advice
- help you fill out forms related to your case
- represent you at some tribunals and courts such as The Social Benefits Tribunal (SBT), The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) and the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).
- refer you to other agencies when we can’t help
We also give legal information sessions for members of the public and other community agencies. And we always work to improve the laws that affect low income people in Ottawa with our community partners.
A community-based board of directors is responsible for providing oversight and governance for our community legal clinic.
Locations
We have three full-service locations, plus Tenant Duty Counsel services at the Landlord and Tenant Board (255 Albert Street, 4th Floor).
Staff
CLSO has 29 staff members, including lawyers, paralegals, administrative staff and a community developer.